Caribbean Paradise in Mexico

Biography of Micheal Peissel Author of “The Lost World of Quintana Roo”

I came across this article yesterday. It was written in Spanish and I translated to English, so be aware of that. It was written by a current Maya Explorer here in Quintana Roo.

Micheal Peissel is a kind of hero of mine and I have read his book three times. I have written several articles on this blog about his trek down the coast of Quintana Roo in 1958.

BIRTHDAY EXPLORERS
Michel Peissel
1937- 2011
Michel Peissel entered the annals of modern exploration to make a big issue in Quintana Roo in 1958, which left a wonderful book called “The Lost World of Quintana Roo”.

Today February 11, 2015 met 79 years the birth of this particular browser.

Michel Peissel was born in Paris, France in 1937. He attended schools in England, France, Canada and the United States where he graduated in Business Administration from Harvard University. It was just before entering the University, he decided to spend six months in Mexico in the fall of 1958. That moved to Tepoztlan, Morelos and began planning his first expedition in Quintana Roo. During this exploration he discovered a wealth of Mayan archaeological sites that were not previously registered and relocated others discovered by early explorers.

This expedition began when he was only 21 years old, and at 22 was elected as the youngest member of the “New York Explorers Club”. After a year at Harvard he traveled to India and led an expedition to the Himalayas and brought back reports debunking the existence of the Abominable Snowman.

In 1961, Michel returned to Quintana Roo to carry out his second expedition and then traveled extensively in Europe and America, and crossed the Atlantic eight times. In addition to French, he speaks fluently English and Spanish. He specialized in the knowledge of Tibet and Nepal, as well as other countries in Asia where he made many expeditions in his life, to the point that became very famous for it, but its beginnings would never be forgotten by connoisseurs because it was the jungle maya who entered the world of exploration.

Peissel wrote more than twenty books of exploration, but it was his first book of Quintana Roo some experts mentioned that no one had written about the Maya region the way élvlo did, since legendary American explorer John Lloyd Stephens as row over 120 years ago with his “Incidents of Travel”.

His famous expedition in Quintana Roo was full of adventures and misadventures, then he was left on the coast to be brought from Cozumel and decided to do on your own a long journey of 480 km walk and ended miraculously, as he passed through dense jungles , swamps and desolate beaches where consideranda was probably one of the wildest coasts of Central America, the same coast more than 500 years ago still had seen the post classic Maya.

During his arduous trek of exploration and discovery among forests full of bandits, he ran into many sites containing ruined pyramids, temples, oratorios and other archaeological remains of the ancient Maya that lay hidden for centuries in the dense jungle vegetation.

The amazing thing is that all this way Peissel performed using only a pair of sandals that barely protected from rocks, roots and ran the risk of being bitten by a snake or scorpion. One advantage he had was that he found it guided by local small sections and delivered to the archaeological sites. He went hungry and thirsty and was besieged by a group of murderers. Among the sites found by Peissel are: Chunyaxche, Chamax, San Miguel de Ruz, Tupak, Chac Mool.

The return trip in 1961 was exclusive to gather material for the last chapter of his book. A book that undoubtedly it is a classic exploration and should be in the library of anyone who considers passionate about culture.

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Related

Post navigation

One thought on “Biography of Micheal Peissel Author of “The Lost World of Quintana Roo””

Larry Fallersays:

I have become a fan, and visit QR places each year I’m there. Your info has filled in some data I was looking for. I am particularly interested and fascinated with Chunyaxche. I made contact with one of Pablo Coba-Cama’s sons and also met a local that works at the preserve. He has offered to guide a one day in-depth
exploration and to also meet Coba’s oldest son who was 6 in 1961. I would love to have some interested people join me.